noun

• 1A person, plant, or animal that is descended from a particular ancestor.

  ‘she's a descendant of Charles Darwin’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Most biologists consider it the direct descendant of the ancestor of the domesticated two-humped species.’
  • ‘People also expect the deceased to maintain interest in their descendants, as ancestral spirits.’
  • ‘Some of the plaintiffs are direct descendants of those early settlers.’
  • ‘Some of the fossils are proving pivotal in testing the hypothesis that birds are the living descendants of dinosaurs.’
  • ‘He had made something of himself despite the fact he had most likely been a descendant of a slave.’
  • ‘The lineal descendants of a farmer have the first right to purchase a farm.’
  • ‘The preferred marriage partner should come from the same neighborhood and be a descendant of a common ancestor.’
  • ‘Until 1994, the company was owned by the descendants of the founders.’
  • ‘They disappeared along with the dinosaurs when that period ended, leaving no modern descendants.’
  • ‘All three of us here are living descendants of that powerful family.’
  • ‘Their descendants have been left in a quandary.’
  • ‘If they did, it would mark them as descendants of a common ancestor.’
  • ‘Their wanderings ceased when they reached the beautiful mountain home where their descendants live today.’
  • ‘Will our descendants live most of their lives in a virtual reality?’
  • ‘How important is ethnicity for the descendants of emigrants?’
  • ‘As time passes, these species, together with their various descendant species, continue to diverge.’
  • ‘Eventually, the DNA materials may be able to link the crew members with their living descendants.’
  • ‘My ancestors were priests, but none of the present generation descendants are priests.’
  • ‘The people who attend them are first-generation immigrants or more likely their second and third generation descendants.’
  • ‘Birds - the feathered descendants of the dinosaurs - fascinate her.’

  Synonyms

  successor, scion

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1A machine, artefact, system, etc., that has developed from an earlier, more rudimentary version.
     ‘house music is a descendant of disco’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The project is a direct descendant of the Learning Design Tools project and other predecessor projects in the E-learning and Pedagogy programme.’
     • ‘An argument can be made that since so many Cajun pioneers copied the Creole accordionist that Cajun music is a descendant of Creole music. But that's another column.’
     • ‘The internet is not the descendant of the telephone, nor has it replaced it.’